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Hardware and Windows Vista Hardware issues in relation to Windows Vista. (microsoft.public.windows.vista.hardware_devices) |
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Puzzle - External HDD Disk Management Error
I have been searching all night for help on this...any suggestions would be greatly appreciated... Windows Vista Home Premium 64 will not recognize external HDD (eSATA/firewire/USB2). I started with eSATA, but that didn't work. I tried rebooting with HDD on, etc. The disk didn't show up in Device Manager or in My Computer, Disk Management, etc. So, I thought I'd make sure the other connection types worked. When I connected with firewire 400, it showed up in Device Manager after a scan as "Disk Drive" or something generic like that. I still couldn't make much traction because all the posts mentioned Disk Management steps to take, but it didn't even show up there even after rescans and refreshs. So, I tried the USB interface. Windows immediately recognized it as USB device and installed drivers like "normal" for USB devices. But, it still wasn't in My Computer. This time, however, it was present in Disk Managment but shows as Disk 1 with "Unknown" and "Not Initialized" in box. When I right click to initialize disk, a "Initialize Disk" dialog comes up asking for MBR or GDT partitioning. I click ok on MBR option, then Logical Disk Manager throws the error "Incorrect function." Details: BIOS recognizes the drive as an external HDD and I recently installed x64 SP2. Does anyone have any suggestions? I would be quite grateful for any help. Mike Some of my Hardwa External HDD: Simpletech Pro Drive 1 TB (eSATA/FW/USB interfaces) Asus P6T Deluxe V2 Mobo Intel i7 Internal HDD: SATAII Seagate 500GB x 2 in RAID 1 6GB RAM -- Mike311 |
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Puzzle - External HDD Disk Management Error
Has the disk been formatted yet?
If yes with what format? If not doesn't disk manager give you the option to format it? Did the drive come with any of its own Vista 64 bit drivers? "Mike311" wrote in message ... I have been searching all night for help on this...any suggestions would be greatly appreciated... Windows Vista Home Premium 64 will not recognize external HDD (eSATA/firewire/USB2). I started with eSATA, but that didn't work. I tried rebooting with HDD on, etc. The disk didn't show up in Device Manager or in My Computer, Disk Management, etc. So, I thought I'd make sure the other connection types worked. When I connected with firewire 400, it showed up in Device Manager after a scan as "Disk Drive" or something generic like that. I still couldn't make much traction because all the posts mentioned Disk Management steps to take, but it didn't even show up there even after rescans and refreshs. So, I tried the USB interface. Windows immediately recognized it as USB device and installed drivers like "normal" for USB devices. But, it still wasn't in My Computer. This time, however, it was present in Disk Managment but shows as Disk 1 with "Unknown" and "Not Initialized" in box. When I right click to initialize disk, a "Initialize Disk" dialog comes up asking for MBR or GDT partitioning. I click ok on MBR option, then Logical Disk Manager throws the error "Incorrect function." Details: BIOS recognizes the drive as an external HDD and I recently installed x64 SP2. Does anyone have any suggestions? I would be quite grateful for any help. Mike Some of my Hardwa External HDD: Simpletech Pro Drive 1 TB (eSATA/FW/USB interfaces) Asus P6T Deluxe V2 Mobo Intel i7 Internal HDD: SATAII Seagate 500GB x 2 in RAID 1 6GB RAM -- Mike311 |
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Puzzle - External HDD Disk Management Error
Hi, Mike.
My mobo has eSATA connectors, but I've never used them. I've never run a true external HDD, and have NO experience with Firewire, or with USB external drives (except flash drives). But I've often hooked my internal drive cables to an HDD sitting outside the computer case so that the computer thought it was internal. Have you tried connecting the internal SATA cables to your external HDD? Or tried putting the HDD inside temporarily, just long enough to use Disk Management to partition and format it? The correct sequence, in my experience, is to first see that the HDD is recognized by the BIOS - that it shows up on the POST screen at startup. Second, it should show up in Device Manager. And, third, you should be able to see it in Disk Management, and create at least one partition and format it. THEN you should see it in Computer and Windows Explorer. Remember that HDDs NEVER show up in Computer and Windows Explorer. You'll never see "Disk 0" there. You'll see only entries like "Drive X:" - which refer to a partition (volume), NOT to a physical drive. Similarly, you won't see Drive X: in Device Manager; it will show each physical HDD. Disk Management will show both physical drives - once they are recognized by Windows - and logical drives - after you have created them. So: Step 1: Be sure that your HDD appears in your BIOS. Step 2: Be sure that your HDD appears in Device Manager. Step 3: See if that HDD appears in Disk Management. If so, create at least one partition and assign a "drive" letter. Step 4: See if that "drive' appears in Computer. Your problem seems to be in Step 3. Have you tried the Help file. The Help file in Disk Management has a ton of good information, but it has at least three drawbacks: (1) It covers the whole Microsoft Management Console, so we have to focus on just the Disk Management parts; (2), it covers much more sophisticated matters than most of us need, such as GPT and dynamic disks; and, (3) it is organized as a reference, not a tutorial, so we can't just read it linearly like a text book. But, given all those, if you search the Help file for "foreign", you should find out how to recognize and install your new HDD. Since you really want to use eSATA, please tell us what your BIOS shows when you connect your new HDD that way. Does your mobo have eSATA drivers built in, or are they on a CD that you need to install? RC -- R. C. White, CPA San Marcos, TX Microsoft Windows MVP Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8064.0206) in Win7 Ultimate x64 RC 7100 "Mike311" wrote in message ... I have been searching all night for help on this...any suggestions would be greatly appreciated... Windows Vista Home Premium 64 will not recognize external HDD (eSATA/firewire/USB2). I started with eSATA, but that didn't work. I tried rebooting with HDD on, etc. The disk didn't show up in Device Manager or in My Computer, Disk Management, etc. So, I thought I'd make sure the other connection types worked. When I connected with firewire 400, it showed up in Device Manager after a scan as "Disk Drive" or something generic like that. I still couldn't make much traction because all the posts mentioned Disk Management steps to take, but it didn't even show up there even after rescans and refreshs. So, I tried the USB interface. Windows immediately recognized it as USB device and installed drivers like "normal" for USB devices. But, it still wasn't in My Computer. This time, however, it was present in Disk Managment but shows as Disk 1 with "Unknown" and "Not Initialized" in box. When I right click to initialize disk, a "Initialize Disk" dialog comes up asking for MBR or GDT partitioning. I click ok on MBR option, then Logical Disk Manager throws the error "Incorrect function." Details: BIOS recognizes the drive as an external HDD and I recently installed x64 SP2. Does anyone have any suggestions? I would be quite grateful for any help. Mike Some of my Hardwa External HDD: Simpletech Pro Drive 1 TB (eSATA/FW/USB interfaces) Asus P6T Deluxe V2 Mobo Intel i7 Internal HDD: SATAII Seagate 500GB x 2 in RAID 1 6GB RAM -- Mike311 |
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Puzzle - External HDD Disk Management Error
Yes, it appears as a USB connected external hard drive in the BIOS and device manager sees it as an Ext Hard Drive Dsk or something like that. It looks like everything's fine to that point, but for some reason, Disk Management "Initialize Disk" is giving an error "Incorrect Function". I do not think the drive is formatted/partitioned at all. There is no such option to format or "Import Foreign Disk" or anything besides "Initialize Disk" (which gives an error) and Properties and Help on the right-click menu in disk management for the drive. Reading the help file a little, I tried some random things, but there is a lot there and little seems to apply to my situation. I used diskpart to list disk and saw that it is listed as disk 1 and is online but has 0 GB. Perhaps I can try to use command line DOS programs to form partition/format the disk? My strategy right now is try to do anything I can to get it partitioned/formatted with the USB and work on the eSATA once that is done. I imagine it will be fine then, but if not, I may try the suggestion about connecting it directly to the mobo SATA. Any other ideas? Need more info? Please help! -- Mike311 |
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Puzzle - External HDD Disk Management Error
Ok, I tried using diskpart to create partition primary on the disk. It gave the same error: Diskpart has encountered an error: Incorrect function. See system Event Log for more information. The event viewer shows a virtual disk service error, but the code has no associated interpretation on the microsoft website. -- Mike311 |
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Puzzle - External HDD Disk Management Error
Hi, Mike.
shows a virtual disk service error, but the code has no associated A "virtual" disk error? That doesn't sound like what you are trying for. :^{ Is this with the disk connect to internal SATA cables? Or USB? As I said, I have little or no experience except with internal HDDs, so I hope someone with more experience with external drives will jump in here. RC -- R. C. White, CPA San Marcos, TX Microsoft Windows MVP Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8064.0206) in Win7 Ultimate x64 RC 7100 "Mike311" wrote in message ... Ok, I tried using diskpart to create partition primary on the disk. It gave the same error: Diskpart has encountered an error: Incorrect function. See system Event Log for more information. The event viewer shows a virtual disk service error, but the code has no associated interpretation on the microsoft website. -- Mike311 |
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Puzzle - External HDD Disk Management Error
"R. C. White" wrote: Hi, Mike. shows a virtual disk service error, but the code has no associated A "virtual" disk error? That doesn't sound like what you are trying for. :^{ Is this with the disk connect to internal SATA cables? Or USB? As I said, I have little or no experience except with internal HDDs, so I hope someone with more experience with external drives will jump in here. RC -- R. C. White, CPA San Marcos, TX Microsoft Windows MVP Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8064.0206) in Win7 Ultimate x64 RC 7100 "Mike311" wrote in message ... Ok, I tried using diskpart to create partition primary on the disk. It gave the same error: Diskpart has encountered an error: Incorrect function. See system Event Log for more information. The event viewer shows a virtual disk service error, but the code has no associated interpretation on the microsoft website. -- Mike311 same to me. as I used Vista 64 bit on my asus Z83 SV notebook with Sp1 and Hotfix KB 950186, my external WD esata worked well. After installing SP2, the ext disk is not recognized anymore. New esata driver from jmicron doesn't help. I thought it is the problem of windows vista 64 bit sp2, because on my other Notebook asus z96hm with windows 7 it works well. With the Same jmicron driver. So i think microsoft programmers and engineers are too busy preparing the launch of windows 7. they don't care of windows vista anymore. Vista is not a finished product. I am really regreting for buying a vista ultimate license although it is only an upgrade from the home premium. |